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Treasure Valley mom reflects on life-saving treatment at St. Luke's Humphreys Diabetes Center

Nov. 14 is World Diabetes Day
Posted at 5:12 PM, Nov 14, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-14 19:12:29-05

Nov. 14 is World Diabetes Day. 

St. Luke's Humphreys Diabetes Center is using the day as an opportunity to recognize their 30 years of service to Idaho.

Audrie Eckerle is a proud mom and has been a patient at Humphreys for years. Eckerle is a type 1 diabetic. 

Complications from her diabetes almost made it impossible to have her daughter, Shelbie, 3, at all. 

"I was told every single week until I was about 20 weeks that I needed to have an abortion," Eckerle said. "[I was told] that she wasn't going to make it, that she was going to be stillborn, that I was going to die in labor."

Eckerle proceeded with her pregnancy and sought specialized the diabetes management offered at Humphreys. 

"Diabetes is a self-managed disease, which means its the things the person does day to day to help manage their diabetes," Julie Walker, supervisor of diabetes education, said. 

At Humphreys, Eckerle honed skills like nutrition, blood sugar monitoring, insulin management and how to prevent diabetes complications down the road.

"I knew I could do it," she said. "It was a matter of getting there, and once I got into a pattern of doing it, everything was fine."

Though her pregnancy was high-risk, having Shelbie in her life is a big reward for the effort it takes to properly manage her diabetes.

"It turned out better than I could have imagined," she said. "Now, I have a perfect little girl."

The program at St. Luke's Humphreys Diabetes Center serves more than 2,000 patients each year.